One day they reach a town full of luxuries. They haven’t seen anything like it on their trek. Five red jeeps stop them. Two natives with tattooed arms carrying machine guns ask for their documents and look them over until they’re distracted by a distant whistle. A sweaty, shirtless fat man, a white local toasted by the sun, signals to his men that the apostle’s people are welcome. A murmur of fear runs through the group, and it only grows when the apostle gives the fat man an effusive greeting. They have reached this place wrapped in an aura of unreality, of distance, lightness, of dreams, but now their eyes are opened. Two men keep silent watch over them from a nearby shack. Farther along, a group of men moves boxes with an urgency they haven’t witnessed in these latitudes. Finally, the pilgrims sense, reality is catching up with them. This stubbornly real village lies beyond the apostle’s hallucinatory speeches. They see it all clearly: the hustle of soldiers loading trucks, the men in the shack who seem to be mocking them, and they understand, for the first time, that their journey is secondary to another reality of trucks and machine guns, of cynical and greedy men.
After a few minutes the apostle returns, accompanied by the fat local. They’ve never seen him like this before, cheerful and chatty, friendly. Almost a regular guy. In the two men’s laughter they think they hear the complicity of years. The fat man speaks. At the back of the encampment, he says, they will find five roomy shacks where they can sleep and bathe. He tells them they have nothing to fear. Today they will be guests of honor; they will have food in abundance. This village isn’t like the others; here there is food and conviction, food and work. His voice has the timbre of a power different from the apostle’s. An earthly power, unbelieving and mocking, which suits him perfectly. They see how the men acquiesce to him, fearful. And they understand that it is also their lot to accept without question, to walk with their heads down, feigning disinterest, until they reach the promised shacks. This is the sinister face of the jungle where they thought they’d find salvation. This is the human and vulgar side of their unfinished journey, and the apostle’s laugh continues, dragging lies down into the village, intertwined with the fat man’s guffaw.